After what felt like years of waiting and tons of speculation, Steve Jobs finally unveiled Apple's long-rumored tablet, the iPad, yesterday in San Francisco and PCMag was there. The event was more heavily attended than any Apple press meeting we've attended in the same theater. After Jobs' keynote, a showroom with several iPads (and at least one person guarding each one of them) was swarming with camera crews. Still, I was able to log considerable time with the device. Until we get the iPad into the lab for a full review, which could be several weeks, here are my initial impressions:
A Tablet for Work and Play
First off, what this thing can do is mind-boggling. Running an OS similar to the current iPhone operating system and powered by a custom-designed Apple 1-GHz processor, the A4, the iPad is lightning-fast. The 1,024-by-768, 9.7-inch LED-backlit touch screen is as beautiful as you would imagine a sprawling iPhone display would be. New apps and games developed specifically for the iPad do amazing things with the additional screen real estate, but if you think it's just a toy, you're wrong.
A designed-for-iPad iWork suite, which was also announced, offers credible, touch-enabled word processing, spreadsheet, and presentation software for business users.
Holding this aluminum-and-glass beauty in my hand, I did wonder: Who will buy the iPad? It's hard to say, but at $499 (16GB), $599 (32GB), and $699 (64GB), it's certainly not cheap—plus you need to tack on $130 to each of those price points if you want AT&T 3G connectivity. (Data plans don't require a contract and you can choose either a $14.99 per month, 250MB option, or a $29.99/month unlimited plan; all models include 802.11n Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR.) It seems like the iPad will appeal to business travelers who want a lightweight, but still useful, portable workstation that doubles as a digital entertainment device, or to deep-pocketed early adopters. It's more difficult to envision my morning subway commute populated with iPads the way it is with iPhones and iPods, for one obvious reason: This thing is big.
And at 1.5 pounds, it's not exactly light, either. Lighter than most laptops? Yes. But to hold it while watching even a half-hour TV show could get uncomfortable. Plus a 10-inch sheet of glass is delicate. Grasping it with one hand to shoot to our hands-on video made me very, very nervous. I don't want to see what a shattered iPad looks like. You could set it in your lap to watch video, but this is one area where laptops—and perhaps even netbooks—still have an advantage: a flip-up screen, by nature, includes a built-in stand. You'll have to buy an accessory case that can double as a stand to get the same experience when sitting at a desk or in an airline seat.
iBooks is probably the most revolutionary aspect of the iPad. The biggest question: Can Apple do for digital books what it did for digital music? Pulling a book off the virtual shelf seems a bit too cute for me, but the page turning graphics are actually quite stunning, and the pages themselves look fantastic. Apple was not demoing the iBook Store, so what you saw in the Keynote video is what we have to go on right now. Amazon may have beaten Apple to the e-book arena initially, but it seems the Kindle might have a hard time competing with the iPad in the long-term. For the Kindle, no matter how attractive its e-ink display is, it's no match for the full color touch screen of the iPad. And when you factor in apps, a built-in iPod, and a better browser, it's tough to deny the comparative appeal of the iPad. The thing is though, you can get a Kindle for $259, but the least-expensive iPad will cost you almost twice that.
Apps, Maps, Photos, and More
A big screen means more intricate apps; The New York Times, for one, is astounding—it looks like the company has mastered a truly interactive app that both captures the spirit of the printed newspaper and the efficiency of the NYT Web site. It will be interesting to see what the iPad can do for newspapers and magazines. Expect to see apps from Condé Nast, Hearst, and Time Inc.
Even the more subtle advancements are exciting. I didn't think Apple could make photo organization easier or more fun than it has with iPhoto. The iPad puts all of the iPhoto functionality literally in your hands. Organizing photos by face or place is a blast and pinching and expanding on a photo album's icon shows you all the photos in a jumbled virtual pile that expands into an organized thumbnail layout. Stuff like this makes the iPad feel a lot like a toy—a really cool one.
The Google Maps app, which can find you at your current location, lets you type a term as vague as "Tex Mex," and then sprinkles the map with the nearest restaurants locations. You even get a street view, which looks amazing on the iPad's display. It's almost easier to navigate with your fingers on the big touch screen than it is with a mouse on a PC.
Safari on the iPad seems fairly similar to the mobile version for the iPhone. What's great though, is with the added surface area, pull-down menus no longer hide the content, as they do on the iPhone's 3.5-inch screen. The tool bar takes up less overall "visual" space too. Typing on the large virtual keyboard is effortless in both landscape and portrait modes; given the large screen, there's plenty of room between keys. One major bummer: Like the iPhone version, this iteration of Safari doesn't support Flash, so there'll be no Hulu-watching—at least not for now.
The iPod is also a fantastic upgrade from the iPhone or iPod touch. Playlists, Genius Mixes, and Videos all appear in a left-hand margin just as they do in iTunes, with a window in the middle displaying the content. Whether you're watching video or just viewing album art, the screen is sharp, bright, and the accelerometer is extremely responsive. Video playback is offered in "full HD," but it doesn't fill the entire screen in this mode. You can tap on the screen, and the video will fill the entire display, but you leave full HD mode.
While the first incarnation of Apple's iPad is truly impressive, its best features are yet to come. We have no idea what future iPad apps are in store for us, but just about the entire print industry is banking on this device to be its second chance in the digital world. And game developers seem to be salivating at the screen's size and full multi-touch surface. What we have already, however, is pretty darn good. We'll put the iPad through its paces in our lab when it is released in late March. Check back for a full review.
First off, what this thing can do is mind-boggling. Running an OS similar to the current iPhone operating system and powered by a custom-designed Apple 1-GHz processor, the A4, the iPad is lightning-fast. The 1,024-by-768, 9.7-inch LED-backlit touch screen is as beautiful as you would imagine a sprawling iPhone display would be. New apps and games developed specifically for the iPad do amazing things with the additional screen real estate, but if you think it's just a toy, you're wrong.
A designed-for-iPad iWork suite, which was also announced, offers credible, touch-enabled word processing, spreadsheet, and presentation software for business users.
Holding this aluminum-and-glass beauty in my hand, I did wonder: Who will buy the iPad? It's hard to say, but at $499 (16GB), $599 (32GB), and $699 (64GB), it's certainly not cheap—plus you need to tack on $130 to each of those price points if you want AT&T 3G connectivity. (Data plans don't require a contract and you can choose either a $14.99 per month, 250MB option, or a $29.99/month unlimited plan; all models include 802.11n Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR.) It seems like the iPad will appeal to business travelers who want a lightweight, but still useful, portable workstation that doubles as a digital entertainment device, or to deep-pocketed early adopters. It's more difficult to envision my morning subway commute populated with iPads the way it is with iPhones and iPods, for one obvious reason: This thing is big.
And at 1.5 pounds, it's not exactly light, either. Lighter than most laptops? Yes. But to hold it while watching even a half-hour TV show could get uncomfortable. Plus a 10-inch sheet of glass is delicate. Grasping it with one hand to shoot to our hands-on video made me very, very nervous. I don't want to see what a shattered iPad looks like. You could set it in your lap to watch video, but this is one area where laptops—and perhaps even netbooks—still have an advantage: a flip-up screen, by nature, includes a built-in stand. You'll have to buy an accessory case that can double as a stand to get the same experience when sitting at a desk or in an airline seat.
iBooks is probably the most revolutionary aspect of the iPad. The biggest question: Can Apple do for digital books what it did for digital music? Pulling a book off the virtual shelf seems a bit too cute for me, but the page turning graphics are actually quite stunning, and the pages themselves look fantastic. Apple was not demoing the iBook Store, so what you saw in the Keynote video is what we have to go on right now. Amazon may have beaten Apple to the e-book arena initially, but it seems the Kindle might have a hard time competing with the iPad in the long-term. For the Kindle, no matter how attractive its e-ink display is, it's no match for the full color touch screen of the iPad. And when you factor in apps, a built-in iPod, and a better browser, it's tough to deny the comparative appeal of the iPad. The thing is though, you can get a Kindle for $259, but the least-expensive iPad will cost you almost twice that.
Apps, Maps, Photos, and More
A big screen means more intricate apps; The New York Times, for one, is astounding—it looks like the company has mastered a truly interactive app that both captures the spirit of the printed newspaper and the efficiency of the NYT Web site. It will be interesting to see what the iPad can do for newspapers and magazines. Expect to see apps from Condé Nast, Hearst, and Time Inc.
Even the more subtle advancements are exciting. I didn't think Apple could make photo organization easier or more fun than it has with iPhoto. The iPad puts all of the iPhoto functionality literally in your hands. Organizing photos by face or place is a blast and pinching and expanding on a photo album's icon shows you all the photos in a jumbled virtual pile that expands into an organized thumbnail layout. Stuff like this makes the iPad feel a lot like a toy—a really cool one.
The Google Maps app, which can find you at your current location, lets you type a term as vague as "Tex Mex," and then sprinkles the map with the nearest restaurants locations. You even get a street view, which looks amazing on the iPad's display. It's almost easier to navigate with your fingers on the big touch screen than it is with a mouse on a PC.
Safari on the iPad seems fairly similar to the mobile version for the iPhone. What's great though, is with the added surface area, pull-down menus no longer hide the content, as they do on the iPhone's 3.5-inch screen. The tool bar takes up less overall "visual" space too. Typing on the large virtual keyboard is effortless in both landscape and portrait modes; given the large screen, there's plenty of room between keys. One major bummer: Like the iPhone version, this iteration of Safari doesn't support Flash, so there'll be no Hulu-watching—at least not for now.
The iPod is also a fantastic upgrade from the iPhone or iPod touch. Playlists, Genius Mixes, and Videos all appear in a left-hand margin just as they do in iTunes, with a window in the middle displaying the content. Whether you're watching video or just viewing album art, the screen is sharp, bright, and the accelerometer is extremely responsive. Video playback is offered in "full HD," but it doesn't fill the entire screen in this mode. You can tap on the screen, and the video will fill the entire display, but you leave full HD mode.
While the first incarnation of Apple's iPad is truly impressive, its best features are yet to come. We have no idea what future iPad apps are in store for us, but just about the entire print industry is banking on this device to be its second chance in the digital world. And game developers seem to be salivating at the screen's size and full multi-touch surface. What we have already, however, is pretty darn good. We'll put the iPad through its paces in our lab when it is released in late March. Check back for a full review.
0 comments:
Post a Comment